On December 1, 2006, electronic discovery amendments
to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure go into effect. In this
seven-part series, Judge Lee H. Rosenthal, chair of the Judicial
Conference's Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, offers an introduction
to the new amendments and describes challenges they present for
lawyers, litigants, and judges.

Judge Rosenthal's introduction follows:

The last time the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were amended to
acknowledge computers was 1970, when the words “data and data
compilations” were added to Rule 34. Thirty-six years later, long after
the computer has become both ubiquitous and essential, it is time to do
much more. On December 1, amendments will go into effect to make the
discovery rules better able to accommodate the vast changes in
information technology that have already occurred and that will
inevitably continue.

The need for the guidance the e-discovery rule amendments provide is reflected in the fact that courts have been applying the new rules since they were proposed, years before their effective date. Because the amendments have to be flexible enough to apply to all
federal cases that could involve electronic discovery and general
enough to accommodate the inevitable changes in information technology,
there are a number of issues the new rules do not address. Instead, the
rules present procedures and guidelines targeted at the distinctive
features of electronically stored information, to help resolve those
issues when they arise. In this seven-part series, I discuss a few
issues likely to arise under the new rules and the challenges they may
present, not only for lawyers and litigants, but for judges.